Doppelganger
Etymology
From German Doppelgänger, literally “double-goer” or “double-walker,” from doppel (“double”) plus Gänger (“goer,” from gehen, “to go”). The writer Jean Paul coined it in a 1796 novel to name a person’s spectral twin, and English borrowed both the word and its shiver of dread.
noun · /DOP-uhl-gang-er/
A person who looks eerily identical to someone else, or a ghostly double of a living person.
What it names
The specific unease of an exact likeness — not just resemblance, but a double that feels uncanny or ominous.
Example
A stranger stopped me on the platform, convinced I was her doppelganger from an old photograph.
Related idea
A lookalike merely resembles you; a doppelganger carries an eerie, sometimes ominous charge of being your uncanny double.